About This Site

This site was started about 2001 as a place to gather information about Great Lakes Ship Captains and Ship Masters. As it gained popularity and we have received more and more submissions, we decided to create a full site on the subject of Great Lakes Maritime History.

Due to the nature of transcription and potential human error we cannot guarantee the information presented is 100% accurate. Every effort was made to ensure the quality of material presented.

The information presented is not intended to be used as a source document. Instead the information is a place to find clues and information to aid in further research. You are strongly encouraged to check the primary source for accuracy and validity as mistakes are made by all of us (especially the early record keepers).

If you find an error or discrepency in the information provided, please contact us. We will then make an attempt to correct the error or note your discrepency along with the original data. We do not change history, therefore we will not change our original transcriptions unless we are absolutely certain that the data posted is a transcription error.

The information is a compilation of other works, many of which are public record and therefore do not fall under copyright laws. Some is taken from works whose copyright has expired. The remainder was contributed to the webmasters of this website by researchers for use on this website. The compilation of the data found on this website is protected by the US Copyright Law, Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998. See: http://lcweb.loc.gov/copyright/.

Under no circumstances will the information on this website be intentional sold or redistributed for a fee.

Individual genealogists may copy and use the information found on this website for personal use "ONLY". It is not to be copied or altered in any way for commercial use or resale nor for use on another webpage without written permission of the webmasters or the submitter of the contributed data (see below). You may link freely to this website using the following link: www.linkstothepast.com/marine/

Where information has been provided by someone other than the webmaster, written permission must be obtained by the submitter to copy the information.

Full descriptions are published only for people who we have reason to believe have died. We will not knowingly publish information on living people. If we have mistakenly placed information on a living person on this site and you wish to have the information removed, please feel free to contact us.

We do not have any additional information about anything listed on this site. If you have any comments or concerns regarding the information presented on this site, please contact the webmaster, the contributor who provided the information, or the official documents noted within the site.

COPYRIGHT This is regarding copyright of book information transcribed on this site:

I just found this in the copyright stuff at http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ22.html#how

In investigating the copyright status of works first published before January 1, 1978, the most important thing to look for is the notice of copyright. As a general rule under the previous law, copyright protection was lost permanently if the notice was omitted from the first authorized published edition of a work or if it appeared in the wrong form or position. The form and position of the copyright notice for various types of works were specified in the copyright statute. Some courts were liberal in overlooking relatively minor departures from the statutory requirements, but a basic failure to comply with the notice provisions forfeited copyright protection and put the work into the public domain in this country.

Absence of Copyright Notice For works first published before 1978, the complete absence of a copyright notice from a published copy generally indicates that the work is not protected by copyright. For works first published before March 1, 1989, the copyright notice is mandatory, but omission could have been cured by registration before or within 5 years of publication and by adding the notice to copies published in the United States after discovery of the omission. Some works may contain a notice, others may not. The absence of a notice in works published on or after March 1, 1989, does not necessarily indicate that the work is in the public domain.

Works Published and Copyrighted before January 1, 1978 A work published before January 1, 1978, and copyrighted within the past 75 years may still be protected by copyright in the United States if a valid renewal registration was made during the 28th year of the first term of the copyright. If renewed by registration or under the Copyright Renewal Act of 1992 and if still valid under the other provisions of the law, the copyright will expire 95 years from the end of the year in which it was first secured.

Therefore, the U. S. copyright in any work published or copyrighted prior to January 1, 1923, has expired by operation of law, and the work has permanently fallen into the public domain in the United States. For example, on January 1, 1997, copyrights in works first published or copyrighted before January 1, 1922, have expired; on January 1, 1998, copyrights in works first published or copyrighted before January 1, 1923, have expired. Unless the copyright law is changed again, no works under protection on January 1, 1999 will fall into the public domain in the United States until January 1, 2019.